Releasing the Heart
by Elviah
Summary: Avery York is gone. Clifford Devoe is dead to Central City. Barry Allen is about to be convicted for a crime he didn't commit. Team Flash is on the verge of falling apart...right? [Incomplete storyline]
1. Chapter 1

The courtroom became deathly silent as the judge spoke from behind the wooden platform. His berating tone and harsh words were all the Barry needed to hear to know that the trial had not gone the way his companions had hoped. It was no surprise to him. Cecile barely stood a chance against Slater's profound evidence. What else was there to do?

"The defendant is sentenced to Iron Heights for the rest of his natural life with no possibility of parole."

From behind him, Barry heard a strangulated gasp from Iris, and didn't even need to turn around to know the tears were streaming from her face. Caitlin and Cisco couldn't move. Joe's eyes brimmed. Cecile's jaw dropped in shock. Barry inhaled silently, closing his eyes as he mentally prepared himself for what was to come.

The judge lifted the gavel above the countertop, but just as he was about to make the final decree, the wooden doors in the back of the room flung open with a bang.

"Excuse me, your Honor!"

All heads turned, and everyone let out an audible gasp at the same time. Barry Allen had just walked through the door.

"I believe you have the wrong person," he said with a sly grin as he strutted forward towards the podium.

All eyes followed him as he sauntered into the room. He clearly didn't care that he had just interrupted a court session as he casually made his way to the front. Cecile kept twisting in her chair to look back and forth at him and the Barry sitting next to her, jaw gaping in disbelief.

"Cisco!" Joe hissed under his breath, leaning across the pew. "What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know!" Cisco whispered back. "I have no idea who that is!"

The murmur of the crowd slowly started to increase in volume as more and more people turned to each other, trying to grasp the sudden interruption.

"What is the meaning of this?" the judge demanded.

The second Barry twirled around on his heels, a devious expression on his face as he grinned at the confused people in the room.

"Need I remind you fools that there is a _shapeshifter_ – " with a flick of his hand, the second Barry revealed his true form, " – living in your city."

The Barry copycat was replaced by a silver-haired girl no older than 19.

Caitlin gasped. "Avery?"

Her azure eyes glowed a light blue color as she held her open palm towards the courtroom doors, using a burst of wind to keep them open to the reporters just outside. When one of them stepped towards the doorframe, her palm flipped towards the ceiling, and a burst of flame erupted from the floor. With a shout of surprise, the reporters jumped back, but the flame was gone as soon as it had appeared.

Cisco bolted upright from his seat, her display of power finally helping him find his voice. "You – you died!" he shouted in a shaky voice. "We watched Sa– "

"What you watched," Avery interrupted, casting him a hard glare, "was nothing more than a façade."

Without so much as another glance towards him, she spun on her heels to face the judge.

"Clearly none of you have been paying any attention to what's _really_ been going on," Avery chuckled. She suddenly stopped, an embarrassed expression on her face as she turned to face the real Barry.

"Which, by the way, I'm terribly sorry, Barry. I did not realize that knife was a wedding gift. It looked new, so I merely assumed it was the sharpest knife in the apartment."

The jury members all turned to each other, the concern clear on their faces. Slater stood up from his chair.

"How do you know what the murder weapon was? Who are you?"

Avery turned her head, a cold sneer upon her face.

"Because Barry Allen did not kill Clifford Devoe. _I_ did."

The room erupted into a flurry of commotion as the attendees all tried to grasp the sudden shift in the situation. One of them abruptly stood up and bolted from the room, terror in his eyes. The judge pounded his gavel on the counter.

"Order! Order in the court!" he shouted.

It took a few minutes to regain silence. The tension in the room made the courtroom begin to feel a lot smaller. The red-faced judge stared down Avery as she smirked up at him from the center of the floor.

"Explain yourself, young lady," he demanded.

"You want proof?" she inquired deviously. The young woman spun on her heels to face the courtroom. "Do any of the ladies here have any makeup in their purses they no longer need?"

Of the few women present, all of them started shuffling through their purses. After a moment, a woman in the back row held up a silver powder container, and without saying a word, Avery used a trail of wind to lift it from the woman's hand and bring it to her. It hovered about a foot away from her chest, being held up by tiny tornadoes. The container suddenly ignited into white flames so hot that the edges turned blue, searing away any makeup that was left inside. When the flames disappeared, the container was clean enough to reflect the lights from the ceiling.

As it lingered in the air, Avery shifted into Barry once more. She pulled her sleeve up her right arm and balled her hand into a fist, then lifted her arm so that her outer wrist was facing the courtroom. Raising her left hand into the air, her five fingers changed into four eagle talons, and before anyone could utter a word, Avery slashed her right forearm open. The talons easily tore open the skin, letting the blood flow freely into the empty powder container as Avery maneuvered it through the air to catch the red fluid. It didn't take much to fill it. Once finished, Avery snapped it shut and handed it to Cecile. With a quick burst of flame, the wound on her forearm was seared shut, leaving three jagged lines of dry blood on her arm.

"Give that to your CSI's and I guarantee they will find no discernible difference between Barry's blood and mine," Avery stated confidently and she shifted back to her normal self.

She stole a glance over at Barry, and it didn't take more than a second for him to realize that she was lying. This was all a façade to keep him out of prison. Using the Speed Force, Barry reached out and grabbed her wrist, and just like he and Iris had been moment before, time around he and Avery stopped.

"Avery, why are you doing this?" Barry asked softly, almost regretfully. He had been prepared to accept the outcome of the trial, but not at the expense of another.

"We can't let Devoe win, Barry," Avery answered, though the sadness in her voice was hard to miss. "Whatever game he's trying to play or whatever he's planning, you are the one who needs to be here for it. Not me."

"There has to be another way," Barry begged. He hesitated a moment, trying to find the words to say in the short time they had. "We…we thought you were _dead_ , Avery. You can't come back to the team like this."

Avery shook her head, her expression grim. "I didn't come back to stay, Barry. I came back to save you, and if that means destroying my reputation in the process, then so be it."

Barry hesitated, and with a nod, slowly let go of her hand as time resumed its normal tick. The flaunting, devious pride was radiating off of Avery as she began to strut around the open floor.

"I believe an explanation is in order," she announced. "I've been after Clifford for a long time, your Honor, because Clifford Devoe…was a _meta-human_."

Low murmurs scattered across the room. A scoff from one of the juries caused Avery to whip her head towards their seating area. An angry glare quickly shut the mouths of everyone who thought about speaking out against her claim, but their doubtful expressions remained.

"He had the ability to predict the future. Clifford and I both used to live in Jump City, where I worked with a team of five other…well," Cisco and Caitlin exchanged worried glances at the break in her voice. "…meta-humans, as you all would say. In Jump City, they were considered a group of superheroes called the Teen Titans.

"Clifford was a high school teacher in Jump City, and I met him after an accident caused one of our newest members to lose both her powers and her memory. The first day I met him, he predicted that my time in Jump City would come to a fiery end. I thought nothing of it and merely assumed that Clifford had read about my fire abilities in the news."

Avery stopped her pacing and stood in the center of the room. All ten of her fingers curled into fists as she spoke with a burning rage.

"However, what he said next struck a chord in me that I never forgave him for. He told me…I would _betray_ the Teen Titans." Avery scoffed. It had seemed like such a trivial comment at the time. How wrong she had been.

"I brushed him off, and found out three months later that Clifford Devoe and his wife Marlize had moved away. It didn't bother me, people move all the time." Avery turned towards the window, and everyone simultaneously leaned forward in their seats to hear her.

"But _then_ …then the unthinkable happened."

Whirling around, Avery whipped out a small metallic device from a pocket on her belt. Had she wanted to, she could've made her words spit fire.

"Let me share a video clip with all of you of the last day I spent in Jump City. It is complied from the cameras inside Titans Tower, the waterfront of the city, as well as the phones of a couple civilians."

As soon as she dropped it on the floor, a holographic cube appeared with the same image on its four sides. Avery tapped her foot on the edge of the device, and the video clip began to play.

Avery, in her silver dragon form, stood at the base of Titans Tower. The base of the building was being swallowed by flames. Rearing back on her hind legs, she opened her scaly maw and released a stream of orange fire towards a window. The glass shattered towards the inside, and Avery flapped her wings, using her wind powers to pull the pieces back together and keeping the fire roaring inside. Her tail lashed out towards a door that fell forward, smashing it beneath the rubble.

Audible gasps were heard in the courtroom as a series of screams were heard from the video. They were the voices of the Teen Titans. Avery stood next to the hologram, unmoving, but a bead of sweat on her brow betrayed her calm exterior.

The video cut to the waterfront of Jump City. This time, Avery was in wolf form, standing on the edge of a dock. In front of her stood a man dressed in all black, except for the mask on his face. The left side was orange with a single eye slit, and the right side was pure black.

Caitlin let out a yelp of surprise as the clip showed Avery lunging forward. With a vicious snarl, the holographic wolf snapped its jaws around the man's neck. The clip fizzed momentarily and cleared up again to show pieces of a mangled corpse scattered across the dock and floating in the water. The wolf stood, blood dripping from its maw onto the beheaded mask it held in its mouth.

The video clip shut off, and no one dared say a word.

"Clifford's demise wasn't _quite_ as violent, unfortunately," Avery chirped, breaking the silence. "A shame, really. He deserved worse."

Iris bolted up from her seat. Despite her anger, her voice remained steady. "If you were after Devoe this whole time, why not use your own forms? Why frame Barry?"

"My dear Iris, you honestly think I _wanted_ to be caught?" Avery chuckled with amusement. "I couldn't let the police catch me right away. That would take away from all the drama."

Avery took a few steps towards the wooden divider that separated her and the pews. "You're lucky I stepped forward at all," she shrugged. "I almost let this whole thing go, until I realized…I had nothing to hide anymore."

Twirling around, Avery walked up to the judge's podium and snatched the sentencing sheet from the counter. Her eyes quickly scanned the document, and she let out a whistle. "Oh dear me, it's a good thing I stepped up when I did, Barry," she said solemnly. "A life time sentence in Iron Heights with no possibility of parole? Ouch."

Avery slapped the sheet back down on the podium and turned, stomping over to where Slater sat and slamming her hands on the table.

"As for _you_ …I'm a little ticked at you, Slater. How _dare_ you twist Barry and Iris' wedding into evidence to use against them," she snapped. "You're lucky I've already had my kill this month, or you'd be next."

Avery spun around before Slater's jaw could move to respond. Stepping back to the center of the floor, she took a moment to survey the room. Before she could continue parading around, Cisco stood up.

"You told us Central City was going to be a new start for you," he accused, his lower lip quivering as he spoke. "Have you just been playing us this entire time, Avery?"

Avery chuckled, a taunting swagger in her step as she approached the pews. "Not the _entire_ time, Cisco. Central City _was_ going to be my new home, until I realized Devoe was here. _That_ was when everything changed."

"So you've just been looking for your revenge this entire time," Cisco said sharply.

Avery's eyes narrowed, her prideful aura ebbing. "You...weren't… _there_ , Cisco Ramon," she snarled in a low voice. "I lost _everything_ I cared about because of Clifford Devoe. He deserved a far worse death than what I gave him."

Cisco rolled his eyes, his voice thick with sarcasm. "If you're so disappointed with yourself, why bother killing him at all?"

A cold sneer took the place of Avery's frown. "You said it yourself, Cisco...

 _Revenge_."

She whirled around, breaking her gaze away from Cisco's anger. "Enough of this. I have a question for _you_ , your Honor," she said.

He coughed once, startled by her sudden attention on him. "Yes?"

"What was your first impression of Barry Allen before you heard any of the evidence of this case?" she asked with an innocent smile.

The judge shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I'm – ahem – I'm not at liberty to – "

" _Answer_ …the question," Avery snarled, her disposition changing at flip of a dime. The judge stuttered before she interrupted once more. "Does Barry Allen look like a killer to you? Does he even seem like a guy who would be _capable_ of such a thing?"

"Ah, well…I – I'm not sure – "

A devious sneer spread across her lips, and the judge grew silent. Avery raised her chin, her voice ringing with pride.

"Do _I_?"

Nobody dared answer. Avery chuckled.

"I think I've made my point."

She turned around to leave, but was startled by a shout from the podium.

"Guards! Arrest this woman!" the judge ordered, his consciousness suddenly kicking in.

A pair of security guards stepped towards her, dampening handcuffs in their hands. Avery smirked, lifting her hand and igniting the cuffs with white hot flame. The guards dropped them with a shout of surprise, unable to move their hands as the burns quickly appeared.

"You poor bastards can't touch me," she claimed.

Avery pushed past them and strutted down the aisle. She paused in the doorway, turning around to face the courtroom. The reporters behind her shuffled out of her way.

"And the Flash will never be able to catch me."

Avery waved her fingers to the room.

"Toodles."


	2. Chapter 2 WIP

It was chaos. As soon as Avery had gone through the doorway of the courtroom, everything had spiraled into disaster. People practically jumped up from their seats and started running towards the door, then realized that's where the shapeshifter had gone, so they changed their minds. Now the room was in a panic.

"She's a killer! Murderer!"

"How could we not have seen it before?"

"That madwoman is walking free in our streets as we speak! What do we do?"

The judge banged his gavel upon the desk.

"Order! Order in the court!"

His words did nothing to calm the frenzy, however, and the fear only began to escalate.

Barry turned in his chair, intending to ask Cecile what their next step was. However, just as he started to speak, a shriek came from just outside the room.

"Run!"

A fierce snarl could be heard, followed by more screams from outside.

"Guys, we gotta go," Barry said as he and Cecile shoved past the wooden divider. "We don't know what she's going to do."

"I'm still trying to figure out how she's still alive," Cisco stated angrily as he followed them out of the room. It went without saying that he felt just as betrayed as everyone else, if not more so.

Barry, Cecile, Cisco, Caitlin, Joe, and Iris all rushed out of the courthouse to the front steps, and their jaws dropped. Avery had left the room as a human, but once outside, she had chosen a much larger two-legged form. Towering over the city with a maw full of 50 teeth and a thick tail for balance, Avery had chosen the reptilian shape of a t-rex.

The dinosaur turned its head, as if suddenly aware of their presences. If it was possible for a t-rex to smirk, that was exactly what she was doing. Avery parted her jaws and took a step forward as a thundering bellow echoed through the streets. Dozens of windows shattered, both from cars and buildings, and clueless pedestrians scattered in panicked flocks.

Of all the meta-humans that had been roaming Central City's streets, Avery York was by far the most terrifying. The massive silver t-rex whipped around, her tail knocking over a light post, and she began to move at a fast pace down the road.

"Where is she going?" Caitlin shouted.

"I don't know!" Cisco replied.

"I do," Barry said solemnly, causing everyone to look at him. "She's going after Devoe."

"How is that possible? Avery doesn't even know where he lives," Joe pointed out.

Barry shook his head. "Don't you guys get it? Avery never died! She's been in Central City this whole time, watching and helping us."

"And when Devoe tried to take you out of the picture – " Iris began.

" – Avery came back to stop him." Barry finished.

"Oh my god," Joe muttered in shock.

"So what do we do? Just let her go after Clifford and Marlize?" Caitlin asked. She didn't exactly sound opposed to the idea, and at first, nobody made any objections. Barry sighed heavily.

"I have to stop her."

"Why? Devoe almost succeeded in destroying our lives. Maybe we should just let her go," Iris said coldly. The image of Marlize taunting her in the courthouse hall appeared vividly in her mind.

Barry shook his head. "It's not about Devoe or Marlize. It's about Avery," he explained. "If we let her do this, everything that we've done to help her since she came to Central City will have been for nothing."

The group exchanged glances, a silent sense of resolve settling over them.

"Barry's right," Cisco conceded after a few moments. "We can't let Avery go dark-side again."

"But how do we stop her?" Joe asked. "CCPD doesn't exactly have dinosaur-fighting resources at its disposal."

"We use the hydro-electric guns," Caitlin said.

Barry stared at her with unease. "We can't. Last time we tested those, she couldn't walk for a week."

"We don't have a choice," Cisco muttered.

"There's no guarantee Avery is going to stop with Devoe," Caitlin added. "If she goes on a hunting rampage, she could level the entire city."

Barry nodded. "Alright. You guys go get those. I'll try to keep her distracted for as long as I can."

"Be careful, Barry," Iris said, stepping forward to kiss his cheek.

The group split up. Joe and Iris headed to CCPD to warn the police force about the new threat while Cisco and Caitlin were brought back to Star Labs by Barry to find the hydro-electric guns. Barry changed into his suit, and then went back towards the courthouse to track down Avery. It wasn't difficult. He just had to follow the sounds of screaming in the neighborhoods.

Once he found her, Barry realized he had to watch his pace. With every step Avery took, the road shook and disrupted Barry's speed. The silver t-rex was storming down the middle of a road, knocking over vehicles every chance she had. The speedster dodged through a couple yards to get ahead of the dinosaur, then ran out into the street in front of her.

"Avery!"

As she noticed the Flash, Avery came to a thundering halt, lowering her head to roar a warning at him.

"Avery, stop! You can't do this!" Barry begged.

The t-rex snorted, unamused by his plead, and resumed her fast pace down the road. Barry had to duck out of the way as Avery ran by, as she had intentionally tried to step on him on her way past.

"Damn it," Barry muttered to himself.

As soon as he turned to follow her, he suddenly found himself flying across the road as the wind was knocked out of him. Avery had smacked him with her tail before continuing down the street. Barry landed roughly in someone's front yard, smacking into a tricycle that had been left in the grass. With a groan, he got back to his feet.

"Barry! You alright?" Cisco's voice came in over his earpiece.

"Yea, I'm good," Barry grunted. "I just learned what it's like to get smacked by a dinosaur tail."

"I do not envy you for that," Cisco replied with slight sarcasm.

"You guys are gonna have to hurry. I don't know how else to stop her," Barry said quickly.

"We're almost there," Caitlin's voice chimed in.

As soon as Barry pulled himself back to his feet, a breach opened next to him as Caitlin and Cisco jumped through.

"You guys ready?" Barry asked.

"Let's go catch us a dinosaur," Caitlin stated.

Neither she nor Cisco looked as confident as they normally did, and their hesitation was echoed on Barry's face. After all this time, the teammate they had presumed dead was suddenly back in their lives in the worst way possible.

Barry scooped up his friends in his arms and ran down the street to where Avery was standing. She had successfully tracked down Devoe's house, and had changed forms from a t-rex to a massive dragon. Avery balanced herself on her back legs in a seated position as another roar shook the block. The windows on the front of the Devoe's house shattered into thousands of pieces that scattered across the lawn.

"How does she even know they're inside? Marlize was _at_ the trial!" Cisco shouted over the noise.

"I don't think they are," Caitlin responded with confusion.

"She's not thinking straight. She just wants to destroy whatever belongs to them," Barry said.

Their conversation was interrupted by an explosion from inside the Devoe's house. They looked up and realized that Avery had set fire to the house before they arrived. She opened her maw, and a jet of searing flames was blasted towards the second floor. The roof was completely blown off as the interior went up in smoke.

"Hey! Traitor!" Cisco shouted.

Avery looked down, an angry glare in her eyes. She leaned down, causing the ground to shake as she resumed a four-legged standing position. Her wingspan reached across the entire yard, blocking them from the sun's glare.

" _You dare call me a_ traitor _, Cisco Ramon?_ " her voice rang in their heads.

"Is she using telepathy?" Barry asked in exasperation.

"Guess so," Caitlin replied.

Cisco ignored them, keeping his eyes on the dragon. "Yea, I am, because you _lied_ to us Avery!" he shouted accusingly. "We thought Savitar killed you!"

Avery's scaly lips spread into a wide smirk. " _Central City has managed just fine without me._ "

"What does that even _mean_?!" Cisco yelled, his cheeks flushed red. "You were our teammate, our friend. Friends don't stab each other in the back, Silverwings!" he snapped.

The dragon flinched at the sound of her old name. A plume smoke slipped past her jaws as she snarled. " _Don't…you_ dare _…think you have the right to call me that. Silverwings died the same day as the Teen Titans._ "

"Good! Then that leaves plenty of space for the real Avery York to come back to her team," Cisco retorted.

Avery's eyes narrowed, and she was suspiciously silent for a moment. " _It's not that simple._ "

Cisco took a step forward, shaking a finger in the air. "Nope! No mam, you are not pulling that crap all over again." The dragon bared her teeth at Cisco, but he only took a single step back. "Unless you give us a _damn_ good reason to suddenly go dark-side, you're getting blasted," he warned.

Avery's brow furrowed with confusion, but quickly changed to anger as Caitlin tossed a hydro-electric gun at Cisco. He caught it, immediately turned the barrel towards the dragon.

" _You wouldn't dare_."

"Try me."

Avery lifted her head high into the air, her azure gaze never leaving the gun in Cisco's hand. " _You want the truth to why I didn't come back?_ "

"Yes," Cisco said. "I'd like to know how the hell you survived, too."

[WIP]


End file.
